Many areas of Australia have their folklore heroes, criminal or otherwise—and central Queensland is no exception. Queensland Desperadoes comprises six stories about this State's bushrangers, each based on fact and told in a thrilling way.

Set in the second half of the nineteenth century, the tales range from the senseless murder of Patrick Halligan for 77 ounces of gold to the unrelenting hounding by the police of the reformed bushranger Frank 'Darkie' Gardiner, from the brutal and planned murders committed by a Gold Commissioner to the unplanned ones by the Kenniff brothers. Cyril Grabs also included humorous tales; one about the amateur bushrangers who killed no one, robbed no banks and sometimes offered to pay for what they took and another about the spirited Wild Scotchman who dared the traps to apprehend him and then roared with laughter as, at point-blank range, a policeman's revolver misfired six times.

Queensland Desperadoes is a very readable collection of yarns about Queensland's wild and adventurous past.